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 Superb Hancock and Awful Democrats

 


 “‘What I Need Is Repose and Recreation.’—S. J. T.”
  Cartoonist:  Perhaps A. B. Frost
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   July 24, 1880, p. 480

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Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
This unsigned cartoon (resembling the work of A. B. Frost) makes the simple point that the grey eminence, Samuel Tilden, is controlling the candidacy of Democratic presidential nominee General Winfield Hancock. Tilden, the 1876 Democratic presidential nominee, had retired from electoral politics, but remained an influential behind-the-scenes powerbroker within the party organization. Here, Tilden relaxes in slippers and hammock as he pulls the strings of his Hancock puppet. On his barrel of money (signifying his purportedly ill-gotten wealth) rests a fan and a glass of medicinal beef tea for the sickly Tilden. (Beef tea is essentially beef broth, and was popular in Victorian times for serving to the ill or invalid.)
 

 

 

 
 

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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